Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
MetLife Stadium is a state-of-the-art 86,000-seat venue. Since both the New York Jets and the crosstown rival New York Giants took over the venue together, it has brought plenty of joy and misery to each fan alike.
I had the pleasure of working for the venue during the latest Giants Super Bowl run, including a 20-hour shift shoveling snow throughout the entire venue prior to the Giants taking the field for a 1:00 p.m. kickoff. That is where I begin my questioning.
A job like snow removal becomes a whole ordeal for a venue that houses a NFL game just about every Sunday, but it’s amplified for the biggest Sunday of all — Super Bowl Sunday. The NY/NJ area has been preparing for this day for a reason. Plenty of sports fans have questioned this move, but I believe the result is boom or bust for the NFL.
Even with contingency plans in place for potential weather weather, you cannot predict the unpredictable. According to the farmer’s almanac, there is supposed to be a huge storm coming to the greater-New York area around that time.
Now we all love the snow (unless you’re an Oakland Raiders fan circa 2002), and we all love watching football play in the snow, but let’s be real — with this past Sunday being the “quarter pole” of the 2013 campaign, it looks like the Seattle Seahawks and the New Orleans Saints are the clear front-runners out of the NFC.
Now we all know that the front-runner rarely makes it to the big game at the beginning of February, but we all know that ESPN will not stop talking about the weather if either team reaches the Super Bowl. Will a dome team like the Saints or a team from the Pacific Northwest like the Seahawks know to handle the snow and elements?
Let’s talk for a second about the AFC teams, because there’s only one worth discussing. The Denver Broncos won’t be the focal point if they reach the big game; rather, its Peyton Manning’s hands — glove or no glove, that’s the question.
The point is simple: stop wasting time talking about the weather, when celebrating the Super Bowl is the objective. Stop over-analyzing the use of gloves or hand warmers or which team is going to be indoors vs. outdoors. The bottom line is that you’re talking about New York. The prices are going to be insanely high for an outdoor Super Bowl, and the costs to partake in all the events will be as well.
Is it worth it? To the NFL, is it worth the potential backlash? They clearly think so.
